B8624-003: Consulting 101: Driving Strategic Impact

The goal of this course is to teach students the fundamental skills of strategic problem solving. Students will learn how to approach an uncertain, mis-aligned, and ambiguous business problems in a structured and efficient way that is based on the problem solving techniques of top tier consulting firms.

This course is for:

Aspiring consultants: This course will give you a great jump start to your consulting career and allow you to hit the ground running

Everyone else: This course will provide you with frameworks and actionable skills to prepare you to tackle the complex business problems that you will encounter in any role

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Each session will convey frameworks for particular situations and experiential exercises for practicing them. You will go through the lifecycle of a real case from the faculty’s personal consulting experience. The topics covered will be:

Defining an ambiguous project and gaining alignment on the project objective

Structuring a complex problem into its highest priority components

Understanding how to collect, refine, and analyze data in an organized and comprehensive manner

Synthesizing the analysis and data into actionable, relevant insights

Communicating in a way that ensures buy-in, understanding, and follow-through

Managing a project, team, and clients through the lifecycle of a project

Adjunct Associate ProfessorAngela Lee teaches MBA and Executive Education courses on Strategy Consulting and Leadership Communication. Angela brings 15 years of innovation, strategy, and entrepreneurship to the classroom. She started her career in new product development and digital marketing in the finance industry. She then moved onto a career in consulting, first at McKinsey & Company and then at an innovation consulting firm.
At Columbia Business School, she is...